Vacation Bible School [VBS] 2007 event -- event for kids ages 5 - 12 years old; held for 5 days straight, started in the morning -- is officially over! Whoa..i'm so happy that i actually join this event -- as the helper. I signed up to be in the music ministry. The music coordinator wanted me to lead the praise and worship! I was so honored by that [I co-lead in last year's VBS]. This experience is totally unbelievable!

I LOVE it to the max!

There were like more thank 175 kids show up. It's so crowded! But that's the fun thing! We got to have fun with more people! Yeay! My team did a drama and guess what? We won the Best Cast Award! Hahaha.. Cute actors and actresses, I would say.







Anyway, in VBS we usually sing original songs. Last year, my sis and I wrote the theme song - "Kings and Priests". This year the theme song - "Ready, Set, Go!" - is written by my faithful guitarist, Yoshua! The theme songs basically talks about the theme of the whole event. My brother also co-wrote a song with me - "Living for You" this year. We also had an original worship song last year - "I Am" that we sung this year too. Yoshua and I actually wrote many other songs but we didn't get a change to sing that in this year's VBS because the kids would have a hard time learning many new songs in 5 days. So we stick to 4 original songs this year. Wait, we did sang another original song for the first 2 days - "Pour Out", but we figured it's a rather difficult song for the kids. We also sang "Royalty", "Here I Am" and "Worship Medley" which is not our original songs. Nonetheles, I am just so happy that the songs are really powerful and prophetic! God's Presence is so strong during the 5 days of the event.

The kids were amazing especially the last 3 days! They got hold of the songs so quickly! We were amazed that the kids were so excited during the praise and worship! We don't even need to tell them to come in front of the stage anymore. They were just very enthusiastic during the whole event! The kids were like jumping, screaming, dancing, clapping and just being free the whole time! Especially the last day! I basically didn't sing at all! I just do fill ins and let the kids and singers sing the lyrics! THEY DID SUCH A GREAT JOB! Also, I got this year's praise and worship recorded -- LIVE! I'm so excited for next year!



There was this 1 kid - a boy like around 7-8 years old. He was new to VBS, and he can't speak English. Btw, all the songs we sang and the main language during VBS is English. Anw, back to this boy. I noticed the first day of VBS he kept on looking at me. I lead most of the songs during the praise and worship.
* On the second day, I noticed he was very focused in the praise and worship like lifting up his hands and all. And he always smiled at me everytime we caught eye contact -- I smiled back, of course!
* The third day, he still kept on looking at me, and this time I noticed that he always followed my every move on stage. The other weird thing was that he started following me around. I was kind of confused so I told my guitarist, Hiro, and bass player, Petra, about me developing a fan. For sure, they laughed and thought I was joking and too confident.
* The fourth day, this boy started to follow me around even more! He even followed me when I tied my shoes! I got kinda freak out coz it's like -- omg! stalker! -- kind of thing. haha.. During the praise and worship, which lasted like 20-30 min everyday, I asked both Hiro and Petra to see whether that boy is following my every movement or not. After we're done singing the songs, Hiro came up to me and said, "Dudette, it's true! He followed your every move! That's so cool!" By that time, Petra came up to me and said, "You have a fan! He did exactly what you did on stage." I was like "..... OMG! I have a fan!" LOL... Basically, the word spread -- some thru words, some thru people's eyes. HAHA..
* The funny thing happened on the last day of the event. On previous days, I noticed him follwing me around with a piece of paper on his hand. I wasn't really bothered to talk to him much because he was not in my group. But I did give him a smile and nice hug eveytime he came up to greet me. You see, I never noticed him in the morning if he didn't stand right IN FRONT of me every praise and worship. His spot was center stage and in between the two monitors in front of me. He always stood on that spot! THE BAND NOTICED IT! HAHA.. Anw, the last day, he came to give me a hand shake when I went down to the canteen. He got so happy that he smiled really big and went on to tell his friend! I was like "That's cute." So to make him happier, I took out my camera and asked Yoshua, who was there playing ping pong, to take a picture of us. He got so happy that he put the best smile of his - at least that's what I perceived. LOL... After that, he went to his friends again to tell them what just happened. Then he came back with a piece of paper that he had been holding all along and showed it to me. There I saw my name "Adelene" with the words "Phone Number" under it. He asked for my PHONE NUMBER! I'm like, "Kid, I don't live here." He still insisted to get my number. I told him I live in Singapore, but he still wanted my number. I hesitated at first coz I normally don't give me number around especially to strangers. I'm afraid this kid would call me nonstop if I gave him my Indo number. So I gave him my Spore number. It's kinda impossible for him to call me there. Then I started to walk away. He came up to me again and asked me about computer! I was like, "Ok, I can give you my email. You can write me there." He was like, "Thank you! I will surely want to write you a letter!" Then I walked away again. This time I quickly ran to Petra, Yoshua and Atha to tell them what just happened. They were all like, "Whooaaa! Bull's eye!! He finally did it! You got an obsessed fan!" I was like "That's kinda creepy in a way. He asked my number!" They all started to laugh and clap, etc etc etc. I started to walk back to go up. Then this boy came up to me again and this time, he asked my address! I'm like "Whoa no. That's too far off. You just write me an email. That will be fine. Or you could come to next year's VBS to see me." He was so excited that he gave me a good grip hand shake, but I appreciated him very much. So I give him a good friendly hug. He was happy again.

That's the obsessed fan!

Haha..oh well, kids will be kids. I'm glad that my life is an example - at least it impacted one kid's life. I'm sure many more because I saw many kids 'shyly' smile and say 'hi' to me everyday. Haha..I love them kids! Hehehe.. I'm so blessed by the ministry I'm in. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful band and supervisors.

Oh yes, throughout this VBS week, I develop this weird syndrome during rehearsals. I always had to find a mic stand and sing with it. Maybe it's the songs that made me did it. It's so 'rockish' that I sometimes - out of nowhere - did the Chris Daughtry style [leaning towards the ground with my stand while singing]. I never knew I love the stand. Last time, it's a barrier. Now, I find it cool and interesting. Haha..
Yea, I guess the music made me love the stand. Thanks guys.. =p

This week is the best because I got to sing for 1 week straight! It all started on Monday which was the VBS practice. THen it ended today after Sunday's second service. Yesterday, which is Saturday, I sang for 3 different events.
1. VBS
2. Music practice for Sunday service
3. Rebirth service (youth)

Right now, my voice is super low. I lost my voice. So, as my friends said, it sounded sexy. Haha..whatever.. Anyway, kinda sad that this week is over because I'm starting to count days before I go back to Singapore. 4 more days! SHUCKS! hix hix.. I did hug many people to say goodbye to. It's so sad. I cried again - which is so funny coz I was gone like since 1 year ago. HAHA.. I'll miss many people this time as I built a stronger bond with the people I spend time with. I spent quality time with them. Like during the West Side Story production to the VBS! It's really my best summer ever!

Now, I would like to thank my band from the deepest part of my heart.

To Joey and Leah, thanks for co-leading with me! You guys are such a great help in getting the kids excited and in helping me save my voice! No other words to express how grateful I am to you both! I love you always!

To Imma, Sam, Josh, Justin, thanks for helping me with the singing! You guys are the best backing vocalist to me! I'm touched to see you all are so excited in jumping like crazy with us song leader and co leads! Also, helping out to find the movements for the songs! I especially love seeing you all nonstop jumping during the last day's praise! Wheee!!!

To Angel and Tim, thanks a bunch for helping me out with the keys. The creative notes and arrangements you put made the song more beautiful than ever! Sounded great in the recording! Amazing job in making the song sound FULL!

To Petra, thanks for the awesome bass sound! You kept that rhythm vibrating in our body! Hahaha.. [i forgive you for hitting my hand with you bass..haha..ya ya, it's accidental!] Thanks for your willingness to play the bass inside of the guitar this year. You still sounded great!

To JB, thanks for the constant beating of the drums. Though you were in pain coz you cut yourself with Petra's knife, you still persevere and give the best during the praise and worship! Awesome Job! I love you bro!

To Hiro, thanks for willingly be my lead guitar though you only play like the fill ins. It's still amazing and sounded great in the recording and LIVE! Also, thx for being very professional - picking up the songs quickly -- by not turning it to sound like japanese music-- and being on time for rehearsals! Great solo in "Kings and Priests"! Looking forward to work with you in the next project!

To Yoshua, thanks for your amazing song! I'm so proud of you! Also, thanks for always being my faithful guitarist since day 1 I founded you! Lol.. You know what I want and you just figure it out in a snap. "Living for You" sounded awesome with the arrangement in the verse! It's a great blessing to work with you all these years! We still need to collaborate again for original songs okay?

To Hara and Fini, thank you for supervising all the rehearsals! It's an honor to have such great examples to look up to. Thanks for the inputs and the best decision made!

Band, I love you all. Thank you for just being uniquely you. All of us are made to be united because God created each one of us with special talents -- like in the TV show Heroes..muahahha!! I'm really looking forward for our next project! Live concert anyone?

Last year's VBS was great. This year was awesome. What will next year be?? I'm so excited at the things that is going on in Indonesia. That is why I feel sad to leave now. Hix hix.. But I'll be back! I want to!

The other sad thing is that we didn't even take a BAND PICTURE at all! I'm dejected!!! I can't believe it! Oh man! Now I got to have like separate pictures of each musicians to make it like a band picture. Hahaha..Oh well.. We still have another project to do together! Yeay!

Labels: 2007, Activities, drama, event, friends, fun, hard work, indonesia, jakarta, kids, MSI, music, pictures, schedules, thank you, VBS

5:33 PM